KnitInYourPants's Xanga

Wow so many almost finished knits...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:55:54 GMT

I don't know what's up with me. OK, I do. Not long ago I discovered that my dd would more readily fall asleep if I was upstairs with her. So, in the evenings while she reads/falls asleep I step into my knitting room and do a little machine knitting. The unexpected end result? ...a lot of unfinished projects! I'm happy that I'm able to comfort her and be productive at the same time - but I need to get cracking and get some of these finished up!

Clockwise from left:
1. Small blue denim merino soaker, destined for some light embroidery.
2. Large (20"hip) Brown Tweed pants - probably going to try my hand at some more applique on these- fallish, maybe pumpkins or leaves.
3. Blue Green dip dyed cascade eco soaker - just did the dyeing yesterday and I'm really happy with the colorway - in particular the way the contrast yarn turned out - I'll be doing some freeform embroidery as an accent with it.
4. Natural marl with rust trim soaker - not sure at all what sort of embellishment I'm going to do with this one!
5. Small Acrylic diaper cover- was intended as a gift - but I've found a small flaw in the decreases after I'd taken the trouble of knitting the waistband otherwise I would have ripped out and reknit the body. I dunno. I hate it when that happens. Only a knitter would notice but....probably be putting this one in the shop real cheap.

I ALMOST started another pair of pants last night but resisted the siren song of the knitting machine.

Fall knitting...

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:29:37 GMT

I picked up some lovely brown tweed patons at Joanns yesterday. I can see it knit up into longlegs with leaves the colors of the tweed flecks scattered about..

I also have one soaker finished - one ready to embellish - and another underway.

I started a pair of pants, but somehow buggered up the shaping so I'm going to reknit. I spent quite a lot of time last night updating my pattern notes in my computer so that doesn't happen again. I forget how to knit pants over the summer - and have to relearn every time. I think I have it squared away this time.

no pics yet - to come before long tho.

I'm knitting a soaker!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:05:37 GMT

I'm doing some therapeutic knitting....been thru a rough patch. I think some creating and quiet time is called for.

That's all for now. over and out.

wow. I need to keep up.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:59:42 GMT

I guess summer got in the way of blogging. I have no knitting to report unfortunately. Been doing a bit of photography - feel free to hop on over to my flickr if you're interested.

Been thinking about knitting....really want to make another skirted soaker. They're just so darn cute. Maybe tomorrow I'll start one....

any requests? I didn't think so LOL

Nope I didn't grow this flower. My famous knitting gardening neighbor Beth did.

The bad news - I somehow got another year older....

Thu, 14 May 2009 18:22:15 GMT

The good news - my compulsive knitter neighbor Beth knitted these gorgeous socks for my bday!

I am inspired. She tells me that WE are going to knit socks from my new socks from the toe up book. I'm askeered!

Fluff Factory Auctions start today!

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:16:33 GMT

Hey everybody - please check out the Fluff Factory Auctions - starting today. I have one soaker up and am going to add a little bag and a pair of shorts today as well.
All proceeds go to Heifer International.

On the knitting front - I was very excited to receive my long anticipated copy of Socks from the Toe Up ! Oh, the book is gorgeous - and since I am going to come right out of the closet and admit that tho I've dabbled in starting socks (casting on, doing random short-rowed misshapen things) - I have never actually knit any. Yes. I am a sock virgin. When Wendy over at Wendy Knits announced she'd be releasing a book of her designs I decided I'd wait and knit from it because really, top down socks just don't make sense to me. I am glad I did as the graphics are very well done and I think I can actually understand it! My neighbor is loving the heart socks. I'm not sure what I want to do first. I suppose plain socks would be best but I am sorely tempted by some of the lacy stuff.
The good news is I already have sock yarn from when I went to see the Yarn Harlot 2 years ago in Atlanta! Let's hear it for the stash!

Many thanks to Wendy for mentioning the Fluff Factory Auctions in her blog.

Here's a pic of the soaker I have up so far. Colors are prettier in person.

quickie machine/hand knit bag

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:35:27 GMT

I think I mentioned in my last post a quick birthday present idea. dd was invited to a classmate's 7th birthday party - I offered to knit her a bag that dd could fill will cool stuff - art supplies, etc...

I cast on with inexpensive sugar and cream striped yarn - think it was 1.25 each for the 2 skeins needed. I did a double bed cast on - then immediately began knitting in the round. I used up one skein, took the bag off on to waste yarn, then put the side 7 (strap) stitches on a holder. I hand knit a garter edge for the rest, then hung the held stitches on the artisan 70d, ribbed until I was sure it was long enough. I ended up pulling out quite a bit, then grafting the edge to the bag. I sewed up the edge where the garter meets the strap and voila! Last step is to tighten up the cast on edge at the bottom of the bag. As always, I finished up 30 minutes before we had to BE there lol. Typical. But it wasn't a rush situation.

We filled the bag with a journal, pencils, stationary pads, a fridge magnet with words to play with, etc...all from the 1.00 bins at Michaels in coordinating colors.
What is it with kids and journals? Lol. dd has a massive collection. Very few are actually full, but she always works her way thru at least 1/2 in one sitting!

The bag was a hit - got a thumbs up from the adorable birthday girl :) It was a very inexpensive gift, which was not the goal at all but a bit of a bonus.

oooo - Custom Art for the Fridge!!

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:56:21 GMT

Check it out - I followed a link to The Leaf Shop, a congo on Hyenacart and bought two adorable instock polymer magnets from Polpette Clay for dd's Valentine's Day. As soon as they arrived I knew I HAD to have customs of our cats if at all possible! I contacted Holly at Polpette Clay, sending her pics of both kitties. She made them in a flash and sent them well in time for dd's birthday. My daughter was charmed by the magnets, and she's not easily impressed. "Oh, they are SSOOOOO cute!!"

Just look at these - the customs are at far left and right. See how she did the swirly clay colors for the tortie? Genius! I think Holly's work is just adorable. I googled and found some more links so now I know she doesn't just make magnets...I feel a definite collecting urge coming on ;)

ut

You can also find Polpette Clay at Etsy.com.
Omgoodness you simply MUST browse thru all the little peapods and check out their personalities. The incognito peapod is my fav tho I am quite taken with the tropical vacation trio as well.

Grace got a little frisky with her magnet but fear not, it has been safely returned to the fridge without harm.

Next post - Attack Of The Nice People and a quickie knit birthday gift...

(plus a medium soaker blocked and ready for embellishment)

Snow!

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:25:46 GMT

We had a "snow day" here in the sunny south. What that means is there was a slight chance of snow - good chance of freezing rain - so just in case school was canceled Monday. Now, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Granted, we awoke at 9:30 am to 40 degrees and sunny skies but it "could" have been icy and us southern folk don't take to icy very well. We slip. We slide. We foolishly head out in search of ways to hurt ourselves.

So, dd and I did just that, minus the hurting ourselves part. We drove 2-1/2 hours to visit my aunt and play in her actual real live snow - about 4-6" of the stuff. It was dd's first time playing in the snow. I berated myself for a good portion of the drive. It was 45 d and quite sunny the whole way. I was convinced that all the good stuff would be melted away. We were pleasantly surprised tho - plenty of snow was left on the ground and no problem finding undisturbed patches to run rampant in.

These snow photos sponsored by a local church - or the adjacent field at least lol. There was one snowman already there- probably made by the firefighters in residence next door. Dd made a snowcat (of course!) and had a dandy time lobbing snowballs at my car. A good time was had by all.

It was thrilling. I'm so glad we did it.

On the knitting front - I'm working on a medium boy/gender neutral soaker. Honestly, tho I know so many people prefer pants and shorts, I just love knitting soakers so I'm going to be knitting up a bunch for spring and summer. I'm planning on doing some more applique, some lighter embroidery, and plenty of more affordable soakers in the coming months. I'm also planning on trying to include a wider range of sizes - seems like I always make larges. Why is that??
sorry no pic yet - I expect some waiting room time tomorrow so I should finish up the knitting portion then and be ready to embellish this weekend.

A little color for your day

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:46:58 GMT

dd loves to draw and paint! Even with a mother's natural prejudice, I can't help but think this is a pretty good drawing for a just barely 7 year old!

okaayyy. Have since learned that above drawing was heavily influenced by a coloring book lol. Yes she drew it. She claims she didn't trace (not that there's anything wrong with that) and of course the color selection was her own. We had a nice discussion about how many artists learn to paint and draw by copying famous works so it's all good.

We took a nature walk along the canal Sunday and finally remembered to take my camera with me. The canal is fed by the river and a few natural streams. Here's one that always makes me feel like I'm hiking in the mountains. I fiddled with the color a good bit - I kind of like the reddish cast. Funny how extra saturation seems ok in nature - not so ok in people. I think I like the second photo best. There are some blown spots in the water but I didn't photoshop - just some quick playing around in picasa.

It's always nice to have some flowers around to model... ;) loved playing with the depth of field and manually focusing. I wish I could control the focus on my EYES this well!

On the knitting front - doing some personal knitting for a change. Rather than shell out another 20 bucks for a case she won't use, I'm knitting a little bag for dd to carry her electronic gizmos in - be it her little mp3 movie player thingy, her flip video cam, or her nintendo ds. Well, it might be a little small for the nintendo. The bag was knit on the fly on the knitting machine without swatching so it was sort of hit or miss on the size. It's just a simple little bag with a button flap and for some inexplicable reason a tiger paw embellishment. I dunno. It's what she wanted. ???
Gotta go knit the icord now, felt and get it put together. Pics to come!